Page:Notes by the Way.djvu/138

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��NOTES BY THE WAY.

��Portrait of Cowper's mother.

��Portraits of Cowper.

��Autograph

letters sold

at Sotheby's.

��fields,' the poet, being at the time in a particular frame of mind, composed the hymn in question."

On the 20th of October, 1866, it is stated that there is a design in progress for the erection of a monument to the poet at Berk- hampstead, the place of his nativity, Mr. William Longman being one of the projectors. The Rev. John Pickford in a note on 'Bishop Percy of Dromore,' which appeared on the 13th of February, 1869, inquires whether there is any record of Percy's having been a friend or acquaintance of Cowper. Percy being Vicar of Easton Maudit from 1753 until 1782, he was only five miles from Olney, where Cowper went to reside in 1767.

On October 9th and 30th, 1869, ' Cowper's Mother's Picture ' is the subject of communications. The portrait was exhibited at the South Kensington Portrait Exhibition in 1868, and was described in the catalogue as the property of Mr. W. Bodham Donne. On the 17th of March, 1894, Mr. W. Wright states that the portrait is " in the possession of the Rev. C. E. Donne, the Vicar of Faversham, Kent, who writes me on the 3rd inst. as follows : " Whenever you are at Faversham I shall be pleased to show you the portrait of Cowper's mother. It was painted by Heins.' ' This was placed by the side of Romney's portrait of the poet, lent by Mr. H. R. Vaughan Johnson. The National Portrait Gallery contains a portrait described in the Catalogue as " William Cowper, painted by George Romney." In The Athenceum of the 17th of February, 1900, Mr. W. Roberts, in a long communication, 'Rom- ney's Portrait of Cowper,' states that

" this so-called Romney Cowper differs in every possible feature from all the indubitably authentic portraits, and it is least of all like the well- known engraved sketch in crayon by Romney. . . .In no one single point does this National Portrait Gallery portrait agree with the genuine Romney drawing in crayons, nor with either of the portraits by other artists."

The Gallery also contains another portrait of Cowper drawn by W. Harvey after Francis Lemuel Abbott. This was presented December, 1888, by the Rev. W. J. Loftie.

On the 27th of July, 1872, the Editor, in reply to Mr. S. Bankes, gives, from Mr. Bruce's edition of Cowper, the passage suppressed in the first edition of ' Expostulation.'

A note is made on the 31st of August, 1872, of an interesting sale of Cowper correspondence, which took place on Wednesday, August 21st, when Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge sold by auction

" about thirty autograph letters of the poet Cowper, addressed to his friend Mr. Rose of Chancery Lane, between the years 1788 and 1793, when he was busy on his translation of Homer. Many of the letters were full of interesting criticisms on Homer's style, the relative merits of the ' Odyssey ' and the ' Iliad,' and occasional notices of the work

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